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GAO report: Dollar coins make more cents

The U.S. could save billions of dollars by getting rid of the paper dollar, according to the Government Accountability Office. …

At a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday, Lorelai St. James, a director at the GAO, plans to tell Congress that switching from paper currency to dollar coins would ultimately be more cost effective, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Last February, the GAO reported that making such a switch would save the country $4.4 billion over the next three decades – or about $146 million per year in savings.

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As the most used form of currency, the weight and volume of that currency has a cost on society, and thus the productivity of the nation. With the choice between solid coins and paper currency, the people of the nation have chosen to use the more economically beneficial for themselves paper currency.

If you propose to FORCE FEED YOUR OPINION OF MOST EFFICIENT CURRENCY onto the population, you are not much of fiscal conservative, let along conservative in general, now are you?

astonerii on November 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM

“Force feed” an enumerated power granted to Congress in Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution, so that they may be tasked to provide the American people with the most efficient form of currency?

As the most used form of currency, the weight and volume of that currency has a cost on society, and thus the productivity of the nation. With the choice between solid coins and paper currency, the people of the nation have chosen to use the more economically beneficial for themselves paper currency.

If you propose to FORCE FEED YOUR OPINION OF MOST EFFICIENT CURRENCY onto the population, you are not much of fiscal conservative, let along conservative in general, now are you?

astonerii on November 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM

“Force feed” an enumerated power granted to Congress in Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution, so that they may be tasked to provide the American people with the most efficient form of currency?

Yes, force feed them down our throats.
I am not talking about my pants falling down by the way. That is your red herring.
The dollar coin you are referring to is the one that is almost identically sized to the quarter. It is not easy to just pull out of a pocket to hand over dollar coins if you carry other coins in your pockets. As of now, the only coins in my pockets are the change I get during the day, and they go into my drink holder in the car immediately.
Go to any bank and offer to give them a huge jar of coins, see what happens. You get a bill for the counting of them. Why? Because coins are inefficient.
Go to any store and offer to pay with dimes and quarters and see what the reaction is. Why? Because here again, coins are inefficient.
Now, take half a million dollar bills and replace them with half a million dollar coins and put them in an armored car.
Well, half a million bills is about 1100 lbs where as half a million coins, of the near quarter size is 10,000lb, 9 times as heavy.
Want to figure out how much extra fuel and man power will be needed to move those coins compared to bills? No? Because you are just a hack and a loser with no interest in looking at the full ramifications of your proposed actions. Pretty much like all progressives in this world.

I understand astonerii’s argument – I suspect the burdensome nature of coins vs bills may outweigh the $146 million per year cost ($4 billion is a 30 year estimate = Crapola).

Personally, I would prefer to keep the $1 bill, and eliminate the penny. 2012 production cost per penny is about $0.0241 (2-1/2 cents). In 2011 we produced 49 billion pennies. That would cost about $1.181 billion dollars – in one year.

The only commerce affected by removal of the penny would be brick-and-mortar retail, only a small percentage of transactions – probably mostly fast food.

A hundred dollar bill could be replaced by a 1/4 ounce 25% pure gold coin. Sweet! Then the value can never be stolen from me. As I can always melt it and sell the gold value.

astonerii on November 29, 2012 at 1:19 PM

You’re mistaking the nature of money. The very purpose of money is to “represent” value that is stored somewhere else (no, I don’t want to get into a discussion of the gold standard). Gold and other precious metals have no intrinsic value other than as a raw material for manufactured goods or asthetic value -art.

If you’re saying you don’t trust the government to stand behind the value of the paper they print, well that’s a bigger problem.

If you’re saying you don’t trust the government to stand behind the value of the paper they print, well that’s a bigger problem.

peski on November 29, 2012 at 1:29 PM

That is what I am saying. They target at the very least 2% inflation a year. They desire to have much more. Thus making savings that is not high enough risk to return more than that amount a worthless effort.

I vote for dollar coin. Dollar bills are a senseless waste of paper and ink. Get rid of the damned bills already. Lots of people like the coin, it’s just damned hard to get your hands on them.

The religious attachment of many to dollar bills and penny coins is to me little more than a bizzare and inexplicable cultural artifact.

Xasprtr on November 29, 2012 at 1:37 PM

There are 1.5 billion of them sitting in government bins waiting to be shipped to you free of charge. You can even use your credit card and get miles or points or what ever for buying them. Then just take them to your local bank, have them put in your account. Use that to pay the credit card. Rinse and repeat as often as you can and live off the miles/points!